I had both the Thingmaker and Edible Thingmaker, both of which featured a hotplate that got about as hot as a waffle iron, the first to cure a gooey liquid into a rubbery substance in the shape of insects and such, the other hot enough to cook batter in various shapes within minutes. After I ran out of goo and batter, I used them to melt crayons.

When my son was about 6 I took him to Ringling Bros. circus. He bought a little plastic cannon that shot a little soft foam man about 2 inches tall. He had a little plastic helmet; the whole projectile weighed only a few grams.

No. 1 Son was downstairs playing with it when he suddenly yelled "Daddy! I broke off my tooth!"

The inside corner of one of his top two front teeth was indeed broken off about halfway up and halfway across. He swore the projectile had hit him in the mouth.

I didn't believe him at first. The cannon was cocked to fire by pulling down a little lever on the side; it was a pretty stiff spring and I thought he'd tried to use his teeth to pull on it.

But I found the broken-off piece and the little cannonball guy -- the tooth fragment had a little smear of red paint on it and the little (red) plastic helmet had a chip of red paint missing.

Last summer I went to a XXXXX sale in XXXXX and found a set of Jarts sitting on top of a coat rack. Knowing (based on Fark threads) that these things are "banned" and have a market, I picked 'em up. Apparently they were on top of the coat rack because somebody told the sale organizers they were "illegal." Being an out-of-towner, I promised to forget where I got 'em.

$2.

Hanging on to them for now (they're in the original red white and blue cardboard box).

ytterbium:Rufus Lee King: MelGoesOnTour: And now that I think about it....are "caps" still available for sale? That is, those things you could either put in a cap-gun or smash the whole wad with a hammer and start a fire?

I found some at Dollar General for my recently-acquired "Rifleman" cap-shooter. However, those caps are not like the ones you might remember from your childhood. Wimpy as hell, I'm talking. They hardly make any noise at all.

My husband just bought a lot of vintage cap guns today at an auction (love the dueling pistols, the boys are playing pirates). It's just a hammer that slams onto an open depression. What do you use, surely not crappy red paper caps?

Snotnose:When I was a kid, late 60s (1960s smartasses) I had a rocket powered car. It was the size of a normal model car. Power was provided by these round brown things the size of a penny, maybe thick as 3-4 pennies stacked. You'd pop a fuse into the engine in the back of the car, add the propellant, light the fuse, and enjoy.

/ Bet ya can't get those anymore either// Surprised model rockets (Estes etc) are still available/// A C engine fits nicely into the neck of a beer bottle, tape a stick to it and it's somewhat stable

The model rockets were never marketed as toys. They were marketed as model rockets for hobbyist. Plus you have a bunch of grown ass people that are into the hobby. That is the reason why they never went away.

When I was a kid, late 60s (1960s smartasses) I had a rocket powered car. It was the size of a normal model car. Power was provided by these round brown things the size of a penny, maybe thick as 3-4 pennies stacked. You'd pop a fuse into the engine in the back of the car, add the propellant, light the fuse, and enjoy.

/ Bet ya can't get those anymore either// Surprised model rockets (Estes etc) are still available/// A C engine fits nicely into the neck of a beer bottle, tape a stick to it and it's somewhat stable

peasandcarrots:A few times, when I've mentioned to friends that we had lawn darts, they look at me like I'm lucky to be alive. Then someone said, "Aren't you supposed to play catch with them?"

Lawn darts. Catch.

"No, there's a ring you put on the ground. You're supposed to throw it into the ring. You don't play catch with darts, as far as I know."

"Oh..."

The weird thing is, I've started seeing that show up in a few articles and even in a book or two - that lawn darts were for playing catch. I think people have heard about the dangers of lawn darts for so long that they started presuming the toy was dangerous as designed, rather than a toy with unforeseen risks for people who used them improperly.

Our lawn darts looked like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Lawndarts.jpg. Note the squared-off point. You might get a hell of a bruise, but I doubt that thing could pierce anything. Not unless you dropped it from a cloud.

WHAT THE F***!!!!! Catch?!??!?

Oh my god. That makes me want to get some, sharpen up the points, and start selling them. Just to see who'd really be that dumb.

I have frequently wondered what would happen if you put a Cthulhu mythos book-on-tape into a Teddy Ruxpin. Mind you, I'm also the same guy that wanted to cover an entire room in an art gallery with Furbies. Imagine walking through that...

Many moons ago - probably early 70's - I remember my parents giving me a toy rocket car that you pressurized with (presumably) aerosol can (or dichloroflouromethane). It literally had a rocket tube and nozzle, into which you inserted a tube from the can. When it was full you put it down, pulled out the tube and watched it scream down the street, leaving a white cloud in its wake. Anyone else have one of these?

Southern100:But the Doc said that in 1955, Plutonium was a little hard to come by!

I guess he wasn't looking in the childrens toy department. :)

1955... this product was off the market by 1952. and the quantities in the kit were too cost prohibitive and small to work in the Flux capacitor.. it would probably only get moved in time by a couple of weeks at the most.

Wait...children's books. Farking children's books?! How many farking pages of a book does one have to eat to get a level of lead that even registers, given the microscopic amounts of ink it actually takes to print a book?

SN1987a goes boom:Cerebral Knievel: also, it should be noted that a lot of these items weren't "banned" but rather recalled, or discontinued due to lack of sales.

The atomic energy lab thing sold for close to $100, in 1951.I dont feel like adjusting that rate for inflation, but that was hella 'spensive back then. It would most likely be purchased by a school districts science program rather than an individual

It is close to $900 in 2012 dollars.

Thanks for that. I was mobile farking earlier and between brewery tasks. kinda rushing for fark comments.

another thing about that kit is that part of it's experiment set is a "cloud generator." that uses medical grade ethanol that is evaporated in a sealed enclosure, Dry ice is put underneath it, and the super chill causes the ethanol vapors to from a haze on the bottom of the enclosure that will show the radiation bursting from the radioactive samples that you place in the chamber.

my local science museum has a very large one to demonstrate the existence o sub atomic particles and cosmic radiation. very cool to just sit there and watch these random streaks appear in the haze.

I've built a couple of them myself with plastic snack boxes. Use the sensor from a smoke detector as a piece of sample material. it contains Americounim ro what every that isotope is called/spelled.

Rufus Lee King:MelGoesOnTour: And now that I think about it....are "caps" still available for sale? That is, those things you could either put in a cap-gun or smash the whole wad with a hammer and start a fire?

I found some at Dollar General for my recently-acquired "Rifleman" cap-shooter. However, those caps are not like the ones you might remember from your childhood. Wimpy as hell, I'm talking. They hardly make any noise at all.

My husband just bought a lot of vintage cap guns today at an auction (love the dueling pistols, the boys are playing pirates). It's just a hammer that slams onto an open depression. What do you use, surely not crappy red paper caps?

Rufus Lee King:MelGoesOnTour: And now that I think about it....are "caps" still available for sale? That is, those things you could either put in a cap-gun or smash the whole wad with a hammer and start a fire?

I found some at Dollar General for my recently-acquired "Rifleman" cap-shooter. However, those caps are not like the ones you might remember from your childhood. Wimpy as hell, I'm talking. They hardly make any noise at all.

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Heh. The ones I'm thinking of came in a paper roll about an inch in diameter. They worked REALLY well. The fact that the gunpowder was impregnated on a readily combustible paper surface, heh, it's now wonder youngin's* back in the 70's were pyro's.

buckler:I had both the Thingmaker and Edible Thingmaker, both of which featured a hotplate that got about as hot as a waffle iron, the first to cure a gooey liquid into a rubbery substance in the shape of insects and such, the other hot enough to cook batter in various shapes within minutes. After I ran out of goo and batter, I used them to melt crayons.

Creepy Crawler sets were the best. Really hot, and that great chemical factory smell, plus if you were good at mixing colors it was possible to make extremely realistic looking insects.

CptnSpldng:Dangerous was a slingshot and a handful of cherry bombs or M-80s.

Heh. When I was a kid, we'd all get together at my grandpa's farm on the 4th. My uncles would send each of the kids off with a bucket full of firecrackers and bottle rockets, and a lit cigarette to use on the fuses.They'd also give you a sip of beer if your mom wasn't watching.

/They'd probably go to jail for that now//Yes, I have a lawn, and you shouldn't be on it.

also, it should be noted that a lot of these items weren't "banned" but rather recalled, or discontinued due to lack of sales.

The atomic energy lab thing sold for close to $100, in 1951.I dont feel like adjusting that rate for inflation, but that was hella 'spensive back then. It would most likely be purchased by a school districts science program rather than an individual